Look, those monitors you linked are way outside the budget you laid out. That Dell you pointed out is sitting at $1,700, while this other one is $1,300—but we only have $1,000 left over for the actual monitor.
The Asus monitor I sent over is $270 and honestly, it’s got the best IPS panel you’re gonna find for that kind of cash. Everywhere else, it's going for $417, but they've got it on sale at Best Buy for $270. That's exactly why I said it was a must-buy. (And yeah, just for the record, the pixel density on the Asus is slightly better than that Lenovo one at $433.)
As for how it actually looks? It’s way sleeker in person than it does in the photos, so don't sweat the aesthetics. If you've decided to blow past that $1333 limit, just give me a straight answer on what your max number is. Then either me or some of the other folks here can hunt down something that actually fits. Or, you could just pick out a few you think look cool, and we'll tell you which one is actually worth your money.
What wiredotter14 is getting at here is spot on. You can seriously build a killer rig for that kind of cash. Honestly, you won't even need to blow through your entire budget to make it happen.
So I’m looking at these Black Friday deals over here in the States. Honestly? It's a joke. Most of them are barely even discounts—like, maybe 10% off if you're lucky. And half the time, they’re just dumping stock on people that nobody actually wants to buy in the first place. I even stumbled upon a few "sales" where the fake "original" price was actually way higher than what they normally charge anyway. Just total nonsense.
Honestly, you aren't gonna find a better deal in any local shop than what Ryan Hayes82 put together here. If you tried hunting on Craigslist after the upgrade, you might be able to squeeze in $67 for a new system SSD, but you’d be playing a dangerous game with warranties being non-existent on half the parts.
The argument for going the Craigslist route is that it’s a bit more of an adrenaline rush, especially if you aren't buying everything from one guy but picking up pieces here and there. Of course, you run the risk of running into some absolute psycho who lures in kids with cheap components just to butcher them and bury them under the sandbox at a nearby preschool.
So, it's your call: do you want to live life on the edge like Indiana Jones, or are you gonna be a total bore and play it safe?
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit + a custom build without a case. You can just pick whatever case you think looks cool.
You didn't mention if you actually need an HDD or how much space you're looking for, so I just threw in a 1TB drive as a placeholder. We can totally bump that up if you need more room, or even swap it out for a massive SSD—it won't break the bank.
Total: $2129 *edit - forgot to mention where I'm getting this from -> Micro Center
I'm just passing through right now so I don't have much time to sit down and build anything, but you're probably looking at some kind of Ryzen 5 2600 and GTX 1050 combo. As far as I know, they aren't making any GT 1030 or lower-tier cards with both DP and HDMI outputs anymore, and relying on DVI is a total nightmare if you're trying to push 4K resolution.
For $1667, you could definitely put together a solid setup plus Windows 10 Pro for $333. If this isn't for some big corporate office and it's just for your own personal use, you can usually snag a Windows 10 Pro license for about twenty bucks online.
So this guy decides he’s buying his kids a gaming rig, stumbles onto a Velociraptor, and suddenly he’s acting like some kind of hardware snob, bashing Xeons and trashing any setup that isn't rocking 128 GB of RAM. 🤣
Here’s how it plays out: you start chasing specs like a maniac, and before you know it, you’ve dropped a fortune on a bottom-tier rig that's actually worse than what you could've gotten if you just played it smart. 😁
Honestly, just grab a beefier GPU instead of dumping cash on an extra 8GB of RAM. Most games out there today won't even touch those extra sticks, and the few that actually demand it? They’re usually just unoptimized, buggy garbage. It's honestly pathetic—you should probably just boycott them altogether. These devs have clearly decided they'd rather line their pockets than actually do their jobs properly. 😁
You’re totally right. I just realized what you were getting at. I’ve been linking the wrong board this whole time. I read a ton of glowing reviews for it, so I was genuinely baffled as to why it wasn't working out. 😁 Basically, I kept sending links for the Prime B350-E when I actually had the Prime B350 Plus stuck in my head.
The reason I thought it was a solid pick for the price is because it's basically foolproof for beginners. It features one-click overclocking, and there's even a BIOS reset button right on the back I/O panel. That way, if things go sideways, you can clear the CMOS without having to crack open the case. I was just trying to make life as easy as possible for the guy.
Here’s another slightly sketchy, wild card option featuring an RTX 2070 for $2800 😁 Though, honestly, I’m not even sure why anyone would bother grabbing a card that beefy just for FHD gaming. Might be smarter to just beef up some of the other components instead.
Honestly, something like this should be more than enough. You won't have to stress about it or pull your hair out trying to figure things out. Just plug it into a USB port on your PC and honestly, you can pretty much forget it even exists. You can find basically the exact same thing for a similar price at any Best Buy or Micro Center you happen to pass by.
Adam Williams2 said:Wait, can that GTX work with the Conferencier setup the mod put together, or is it just for this specific version you're running? 🤷
Also, one more thing—I'm planning to run this rig on WiFi, so I'm assuming I'll need some kind of card for that, right? 😁
And seriously, one last thing... 😬
Can I actually score any deals on these parts at a big convention like PAX in Seattle, or will those discounts only apply to brand-new gear? Do the shops there set up booths and run promos like that? I've never been, so I'm totally clueless. 🤷
You can. That Conferencier build he put together is solid, but you're definitely gonna have to dig a little deeper into your pockets if you want the 1070Ti. For the WiFi, honestly, just grab a USB WiFi adapter. It'll run you about $33 bucks.
As for the convention, I'm not sure, but there's always a chance they'll have some Black Friday type sales going on. We'll know more in a week or so.
So this guy mentioned his upper limit for the tower is $2667. Check out this build—it features a GPU that’s easily 60-70% more powerful.
$2733.
They didn't have the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 in stock, so I swapped it for the 1600x instead. If you ditch the 212 EVO cooler and swap the 1070Ti for an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, you're looking at roughly $2500. Even then, it's still about 40% beefier than an RX 580. (Though, I gotta say, what crimsonstag84 mentioned regarding the price-to-performance ratio is spot on.)
As for the monitor, definitely go with a VA panel like the guys suggested earlier. You don't want that decent graphics card just rotting away on some mediocre 60-75Hz refresh rate. 😁
A newer gen i5 processor (doesn't matter if it's an 8xxxU or H series, just get it) 8GB of RAM An SSD
An IPS screen is totally optional, really just depends on how much cash you’re willing to blow You're looking at anywhere from $450 to $2000 if you want to actually get something decent
Maybe in that weird little world inhabited by "geniuses" and Craigslist resellers. Personally? I call it straight-up scamming people who don't know any better. A buyer deserves to know they can grab a much better, brand-new processor for $267. Even if you're just looking for an upgrade, it actually makes more sense to overhaul your entire platform than to dump that much cash on a chip like this.
The i5 6500 is the cheapest used option on eBay - $333 (lol, are you kidding me?) An AMD Ryzen 5 1400 - brand new at Best Buy - $317
Do some math if you're smart enough. Good luck continuing to overprice parts and rip off customers.
Look, obviously an Intel Core i5-4670K is going to crush an i5-6500 in terms of raw power. That 6500 chip is basically sitting in the same ballpark as an AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or a 2200g, and you can pick up those newer ones for about $250. Just because some guy paid $667 for an i5-6500 two years ago doesn't mean he gets to go on eBay and demand a fortune for it today. It doesn't work like that.
When you're sizing up used gear, you can't just look at what someone originally shelled out and subtract a percentage. That's amateur hour. You have to look at how it stacks up against what's actually hitting the shelves right now. For example, people on Craigslist are trying to flip the i5-6500 for $333, but you can grab a brand new AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or 2200g—which are in the exact same performance tier—for around $750. So, realistically, a used i5-6500 is worth exactly what a used AMD Ryzen 3 1200 is worth.
Bottom line: the prices are fair. He can sell it for that much without being a total highway robber. 😁
